1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to fishing tackle. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved fish hook that has antimicrobial properties to reduce the chance of infection in fishes that are caught and released during the course of fishing and reduce the chance of infection to anglers and others that may be accidentally impaled on the hook.
2. Background Information
Fishing as an activity is almost as old as man, with some studies showing that man regularly consumed fresh water fish dating back to the beginning of the Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago. Recreational or sport fishing is an activity that is enjoyed by many people. In several states in the United States, fishing is the number one outdoor sport with one in four Americans participating at least once each year. The most common type of recreational or sport fishing is done utilizing a fishing rod which usually consists of a rod, a reel attached to the rod, a line attached to the reel, and a hook attached to the line. The practice of catching or attempting to catch fish with a hook is generally known as angling, and the practitioners as anglers. A basic fishing rod can be made by tying a hook to a line and tying the line to a stick. To fish, the angler uses the fishing rod to cast the hook into the water. The goal is to have the fish take the hook into its mouth so that the fish can be snagged and the angler can reel in the fishing line with the fish attached via the hook. Some fishing is also done whereby the hook is dragged across the fish's body so that the fish hook snags the fish externally. Fishing with a hook in most cases always results in the fish being wounded by the hook. Fishing to some is considered inhumane because of the nature of how the hook is used to impale the fish to catch it.
Fish Hooks
A “fish hook” is a device for catching fish generally, as noted above, by impaling them in the mouth or, more rarely, by snagging the body of the fish. Fish hooks have been employed for centuries by fisherman to catch fresh and saltwater fish with early examples found dating to 7000 BC. In 2005, the “fish hook” was chosen by Forbes as one of the top twenty tools in the history of man. There is an enormous variety of fish hooks in the world of fishing. Sizes, designs, shapes, and materials are all variable depending on the intended purpose of the fish hook. Fish hooks are designed to hold various types of artificial, processed, dead or living, baits (generally classified as Bait fishing); to act as the foundation for artificial representations of fish prey (e.g., Fly Fishing); or to be attached to or integrated into other devices that represent fish prey (e.g. Lure Fishing).
Despite the almost endless variety of fish hook designs there are some generally common components of a fish hook 10, as shown in FIG. 1, which is a useful basis for the discussion of any fish hook related development. The commonly referred to parts of a fish hook are the point 12, which is the sharp end that penetrates the fish's mouth or flesh; the barb 14, which is the projection extending backwards from the point 12 and which secures the fish from unhooking (although the barb 14 has been minimized or omitted from some “barbless” hooks 10 designed for catch and release applications); the eye 16, which is the end of the hook 10 that is connected to the fishing line or lure; the bend 18 and the shank 20 which are those portions of the hook 10 that connects the point 12 and the eye 16; and the gap 22, which is the distance between the shank 20 and the point 12. Another common attribute of a hook 10 is the bite 24 which is the distance from the point 12 to the bottom of the bend 18. Additionally common are “single” hooks 10, one of which is shown in FIG. 1, double hooks which can be described as two hooks having a shared or merged shank and eye one of which is also shown in FIG. 1, and triple hooks which can be described as three hooks having a shared or merged shank or eye, an example of which is also shown in FIG. 1.
Fish hooks 10 have been known to have been crafted from all sorts of materials, including wood, animal and human bone, horn, shells, stone, bronze, iron, plastic, steel, alloys and the like. Presently hooks 10 are most commonly manufactured from either high-carbon steel, steel alloyed with Vanadium, or stainless steel, depending on application. Most quality fish hooks 10 available presently are covered with some form of corrosion-resistant surface coating. Additionally, coatings are applied to color and/or provide aesthetic value to the hook. Hooks 10 have been coated with clear lacquer, gold, nickel, Teflon® polymer, tin and a variety of other materials.
Catch and Release
Many anglers practice “catch and release” whereby once the fish is caught and reeled in, the hook 10 is removed and the fish is returned to the water before experiencing serious exhaustion or injury. There are many reasons for releasing the fish back into the water. Sometimes catch and release is mandated as a conservation measure. Sometimes the angler simply does not want to keep the fish and merely enjoys the sport. Other times the angler catches a non-target fish and releases it back into the water. In some cases an angler catches a fish that is out of season and it cannot be kept. Other times there may be a limit on the size that the fish must be before the angler is allowed to keep the fish. Sometimes an angler has caught and kept their daily limit of fish but wants to continue fishing and must return any new fish that are caught back into the water. Sometimes anglers fish at waterways which are pay fishing spots. The angler must pay for any fish they keep. If the angler does not want to keep the fish then they will return the fish to the water. Regardless of the reason for returning the fish, with catch and release fishing, the hook is removed if possible and the fish is returned to the water.
Injury to Fish
As noted a fish hook 10 is designed to function by impaling the fish and remaining attached to the fish as the angler reels in a line that is attached to the hook 10. This impalement naturally creates a wound in the fish. Compounding the severity of the wound is that the fish hook 10 is typically not sterile. This occurs for many reasons such as the addition of bait that is added to a hook 10 or lure to increase the chances of catching a fish. These baits may contaminate the hook 10 with microbes. When a fish is impaled by a contaminated hook 10, microbes can be inserted into the wound. As with any wound, a chance of infection is created and often this infection results in the ultimate death of the fish. Even if the infection does not kill the fish, the infection causes it to suffer for a period of time, especially if the hook 10 is left in upon its return to the water.
It is advantageous to ensure the recovery of a fish that is caught and then released for many reasons. In “pay waterways” such as pay lakes, where the angler pays a waterway owner for the privilege to fish or based on the size of fish caught, fish are sometimes returned to the water because they are undersized or a non-target species. It would be advantageous to the pay waterway owner to increase the survival rate of fish returned to the water. Often waterways are stocked with fish by the state or local conservation authorities. It would be advantageous to increase the fish survival rate so that less fish would need to be stocked. Some people like to fish, but are saddened by the thought of killing the fish. It would be advantageous to them to be able to fish in such a way as to improve the odds of the fish's recovery. Many water ways such as ponds and lakes only have a certain number of large fish. It would be advantageous to help with the recovery of the fish so that there are more large fish to be caught by other anglers. It is also humane to treat an injured animal.
Currently anglers have no way to constantly sterilize their hooks, or treat the puncture wound caused by their hooks which results in the suffering and sometimes the death of the fish. The angler merely removes their hook and returns the injured fish to the water. It would therefore be advantageous and convenient for the angler to use a fish hook that has antimicrobial properties to sterilize the hook, reduce the chance of infection, and to treat the wound.
Injury to Anglers (and Spectators)
Fish hooks 10 are not limited to causing injury to fish. Anglers, and sometimes those merely in the area, can become hooked on a misplaced fish hook 10. Standard texts for emergency medicine include sections on treating fish hook injury, including descriptions of the “push through and cut off” technique for fishhook removal and the “string flick” technique for fishhook removal. While data on fishhook injuries is sparse, some emergency departments in heavily fished areas report more than 600 cases per year. This number obviously does not address the number of injuries that are self treated. The injury to humans from a fish hook is also quite susceptible to infection if left untreated. A smaller subset of non-fish fish hook injuries is represented by pets, which also are susceptible to infection. Thus, it would also be advantageous to use an antimicrobial fish hook in case the angler accidentally hooks themselves, which often happens. This would reduce the chance of the infection in the angler.
Fish Hook Prior Art Developments
There have been many improvements to the fish hook over the last few centuries.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,159,357 and 6,910,297 disclose composite fish hook designs that allege increased strength and penetration capability. U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,456 describes a fish hook designed to be stamped out of sheet metal for increased hook production. U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,763 discloses a glowing fish hook to increase attraction of the fish to the hook. U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,584 describes a hook for greater hooking and holding power. U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,020 describes a plastic fish hook that is designed to provide a “shock absorber action” during catching of a fish. U.S. Pat. No. 2,511,117 discloses a fishing lure in which the body of the lure, including the hook, is formed of translucent material to more nearly simulate an insect. U.S. Design Pat. D276,360 discloses an ornamental design for a transparent fishing hook. U.S. Published Patent Application 2008-0209794 discloses a fish hook formed of “an in situ composite of bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy” generally used in commercial fishing applications. US Published Patent Application 2004-0261311 describes an improved fishing hook that is coated with titanium to reduce the drag of the hook as it impales the fish. “Ornamental” fish hooks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. D617,412; D616060; D615,148; D609,304; D600,316 D556,292; D522,087; D507,034; D469,502; D467,989; D440,275; D404,795; D370,048; D315,593; D283,830; D252,336; D244,133
A number of the patentable improvements are particularly related to catch and release applications. U.S. Pat. No. 7,225,582 discloses a modified fish hook for catch and release applications intended to minimize the wound to the fish. U.S. Pat. No. 6,753,004 discloses a biodegradable fishing lure formed of fish digestible materials. U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,316 discloses a fish hook improvement designed to assist the fish in catch and release applications that have embedded hooks (hooks that cannot be easily removed), specifically disclosing a biodegradable fishhook. Similarly U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,142 discloses a “self-destructing” fish hook designed to corrode rapidly if left embedded in the fish in catch and release applications. U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,562 is entitled a “Pointless releasable fish hook”, however it is actually a non-piecing tong type devise that is not a “fish hook” but rather a game trapping device, but it is designed for catch and release applications. Other “barbless” or retractable barb designed hooks for catch and release are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,998,375; 4,922,649; 4,858,371; 4,723,372; 4,570,373; 4,028,838; and 3,624,690. U.S. Design Pat. No. D242,919 discloses an ornamental design for what is called a “retrievable fish hook.”
The above identified patents and applications, incorporated herein by reference, provide a brief overview of the many developments in the fish hook field, as well as illustrating the wide variety of fish hooks available. None of these improvements aid in sterilizing, treating, or reducing the effect on the wound itself of the impaling of the fish.
Thus one of the objects of the present invention is to treat the wound via an antimicrobial substance that is located on or in the hook. Yet another object of the invention is to sterilize the hook before it impales the fish to minimize the amount of foreign microbes that are injected into the wound. It is yet another object of the invention to continue to provide antimicrobial treatment to the fish, for a period of time. It is yet another object of the invention to provide temporary pain relief to the fish upon impalement.
Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a perusal of the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention.
It is an object of the present invention to address the deficiencies of the prior art discussed above and to do so in an efficient, cost effective manner.